It took 22 years for Ross Brown (St Clair) to turn the tables on Ken Walker (Fairfield), who beat him in the New Zealand championship singles final in Wellington in 1987.
Walker (61) also beat Brown (50) in the final of the Bowls Dunedin champion of champions singles that year.
It was Brown's turn yesterday when he beat Walker in the final of the Professional Bowls Association singles at the Westpac Indoor Bowls Stadium 8-8, 7-6.
Brown, a support worker, is one of four winners from events held at Pukekohe, Hamilton and Hastings at the weekend.
They will contest the national finals in Hastings on September 5.
The other winners were Steve Cox (Pukekohe), Raika Gregory (Hamilton), and Wellington's Rob Ashton (Hastings).
The winner of the national final will get an all-expenses paid trip to the International Open Singles in England in November.
"It was good to finally get my revenge on Ken," quipped Brown after a dramatic game that saw him clinch the game with his last bowl.
Brown was on the verge of making the New Zealand bowls team 20 years ago when he took a long break from the game because of a painful back.
He tried to come back a decade ago but found that he still lacked the passion that had catapulted him into the national spotlight in the late 1980s.
Brown has been back on the green over the last four years and has quickly returned to the form that made him such a formidable opponent.
Brown has made his mark on the local scene and this year won his tenth Bowls Dunedin title and gained a bar for his gold star.
But he knew it would be tough in the final because he was up against former World Bowls representative Ken Walker who has won 30 Bowls Dunedin titles.
Walker spends most of his spare time at the indoor rink and is the grand master of the indoor green.
He has competed in six World PBA finals events in the United Kingdom.
Brown needed three shots on the final end to win the game and had two shots on the head before his final bowl.
It was on target and curled in for third shot, the game, the tournament and a place in the national final.
There were 53 starters in the qualifying event that was held at the Westpac Bowls Stadium in Dunedin over the weekend.
Walker had some hard games to qualify for the final and beat Bill Clements (Alexandra) 6-6, 8-4, former international Paul Girdler (Dunedin) 6-5, 8-4, centre president Robbie Thomson (Dunedin) 10-6, 5-13, 2-0 and Mark Cowan (Dunedin) 11-3, 10-4.
Brown beat Miguel Rodriguez (Dunedin) 4-9, 10-3, 2-0; Carolyn Crawford (St Clair) 9-3, 9-4; Joko Susilo (Dunedin) 7-8, 8-3, 2-0 and former international Terry Scott (North East Valley) 2-8, 10-8, 2-1.
Malia Ellison (Dunedin) was one of four women competing in the event and continued her giant killing by beating New Zealand representative Shayne Sincock (Canterbury) 9-0, 6-10, 2-0 in the first round.
She had beaten double world champion Gary Lawson (Canterbury) in last month's PBA event in Dunedin.
New Zealand under-19 Kittyhawk champion Sam Morton (Timaru) beat the experienced Denis Leeden (Dunedin) 7-6, 9-5 in the first round.
Leeden qualified for the national final in last month's event in Dunedin.
